A division bench headed by Calcutta High Court Chief Justice T.S. Sivagnanam, on Monday, directed the West Bengal government to file an affidavit on the CAG report on its annual donation to different community Durga Puja committees.

The court was hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) on the annual puja donations, which this year has been Rs 85,000 to each puja committee. The Chief Justice during the hearing made an observation that the donation is a negligible amount of the total expenditure by each puja committee at least in Kolkata.

He also observed that the money could probably be utilized for the members of the clubs concerned.

According to him, he had moved around in different pandals on the puja days during the last two years and it seemed to him that the amount of Rs 85,000 was a meagre percentage of the total expenditure.

The Chief Justice also observed that if the state government could spend Rs 85,000 as a donation to each puja committee, it could consider adequate spending for people suffering for different reasons. The state government should think about the interest of everyone, the Chief Justice observed.

The state government has faced criticisms on the issue since the time the Mamata Banerjee-led government introduced the system for annual donations to the local clubs.

There had been questions behind the justification of such expenditure from the state exchequer, especially, when the state government employees are denied dearness allowances at par with the Central government employees and the arrears accrued on it.

This year, several puja committees announced their refusal to accept the state government donation as a token protest against the ghastly rape and murder of a junior doctor of state-run R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital last month.

The Chief Minister has announced that the money allotted to clubs refusing the donation will be given to the new applicants.

The CAG does a review of the expenditure of the state government under various heads and also makes observations on such expenses. As per the Calcutta High Court order, the state government will have to file the affidavit on CAG’s review and observation on the expenditure of the money paid as a donation by the state government.